Do People Cut Their Fan Leafs

[tom-tom]

As u all no i got a plant in flower and it has a bunch of leafs ,,i been lookin around the site and i always see peoples plants with out a lot of leafs but a heck of a lot of buds and fat colas ,,im wonerin if im suposed to trim my leafs back so the light can get to the cola better,,now i no ive seen people say not to cut ur fan leafs so i never have but i got prolly 2 our 3 weeks left of flower to go so im wondering if their is any thing im suposed to be doing cause i see outher plants that look like a plant with just a big cola on it and hardley no leafs what do i do???

 

[tiller08]

hey tom tom heres what ed R. says in the growers hand book about pruning sun leaves
"contrary to myth,sun leaves should not be removed from the plant except late in life when they often yellow.These leaves are little sugar factories which turn the light energy to chemical energy which is stored and used later When the leaf is removed,the plant loses a source of energy and its rate of growth slows . if you don't believe this , try an experiment.find any type of plant which has two sun leaves on either side.remove one of the leaves and see which branch develops faster " i have tried this with a 2 jade trees no less and he was correct the the uncut plant grew stronger and had more new growth

it is my opinion that the leaves should not be removed until they are at least half dead or let nature take its course but i know of other growers that will pretrim a plant if they know they will be harvesting in a week
so i would say that its a personal choice type of thing

 

[Crazy Horse]

No

 

[Puff- The Magic Dragon]

hey tom tom heres what ed R. says in the growers hand book about pruning sun leaves
"contrary to myth,sun leaves should not be removed from the plant except late in life when they often yellow.These leaves are little sugar factories which turn the light energy to chemical energy which is stored and used later When the leaf is removed,the plant loses a source of energy and its rate of growth slows . if you don't believe this , try an experiment.find any type of plant which has two sun leaves on either side.remove one of the leaves and see which branch develops faster " i have tried this with a 2 jade trees no less and he was correct the the uncut plant grew stronger and had more new growth

it is my opinion that the leaves should not be removed until they are at least half dead or let nature take its course but i know of other growers that will pretrim a plant if they know they will be harvesting in a week
so i would say that its a personal choice type of thing

I agree with the above.

 

[tom-tom]

ok i was just wondering because i got about 3 weeks at the most left before harvest and ,i was looking at peoples bud shots and it looked like a lot of the big leafs that block the light from getting to the buds were trimed our somethin,,unless it was just the strain they were growing that made it look like that i dont no ,,it just made me curious to see if i should trim to give more light to the buds

 

[Dubbaman]

hey tom go with your gut some people do trim but if oyu do dont take much off. i am not in the habit of it i wait till the plant says that leaf needs to go and by then it usually just falls of in my hands when i touch it so i know the plant has made the most of that fan :cool2:

 

[I'ma Joker Midnight Toker]

I've seen it where they just cut half of the leaf back...not sure if that's the right thing to do but many do it...it does leave some of the sugar factory there but it must stress the plant I would think IMO

 

[tom-tom]

ok well the leafs are still nice and green ,,when its time to harvest do they die our somethin cause it looks like they will be green still and healthy when its time to harvest ,,but do u guys think the buds will get fatter if i cut back the fan leafs ,,??do the fan leafs have any thing to do with bud production are they just for the veg stage for the plant to grow up and get bushy ,are like i said do the fan leafs $uck in light to help produce the buds ???

 

[peruvian skunk]

been wondering the same good posts and responces thanks eveyone

 

[tom-tom]

hear is some picks of the leafs im talkin about,,im not gonna cut them but im wonderin if i tie them out of the way our something if more light will get to the coloa ,,out of all the picks i look at on hear i never see peoples coloas surounded by so many leafs witch our blocking out the light

 

[0b1kinsmokey]

Do People Cut Their Fan Leafs

no

 

[snuggles]

Never....I would never. Plucking a leaf here and there maybe but I don't cut fan leaves.

Tom if you are really bothered by the leaves tuck them away somewhere or tie the plant, on my soil pots I drill wholes in all four corners of the upper lip, I then use twine to pull the plant apart. If you have rafters you can do that too, pulling the plant apart (meaning exposing the middle of it to light) will help your yield.

I'll post a pic in my gallery in a bit, I actually have one plant now that I am doing this with.

 

[snuggles]

Sorry this is the only pic I could find I am only using 2 corners at the moment but I do have hole in all 4 corners. Also Tom-Tom I was checking out your LST, cool stuff. So you know to pull gently on the strings, it may take 2 weeks to get some of them into position, be gentle not to snap anything...like I did a couple hours ago

 

[mendo local]

personally the last 2 weeks of flower I start to strip off leaves that are starting to yellow or may be in the way of buds. I like to cause when it is time to harvest it is much easier. My buds still fatten up the same near the end, but i would never strip anything earlier than that. just my .02

 

[snuggles]

I do the same, if something is dying I remove it, and yeah if things are yellow I pull them off...no need to waste energy on those old over the hill leaves...on the other hand a friend of mine does trim his sun leaves, I get more yield with the same clones and he actually has 200 more watts on his plants than I.

 

[Hick]

PHOTOSYNTHESIS
.. the "leaves" are where the light is used/utilized. They absolutely need to be exposed to the most light possible. They ARE the solar powered machine, that feeds the plants. Flowers, (pistills) do not have the ability to 'use' light.

 

[tom-tom]

thanks hick and everyone else ,,i kind of tied them out of the way a little so i can get my hps closer to the plant with out hitting them side leafs it worked perfect and the light can still get to them great

 

[rubbfuzz]

this post was great. very usefull thanks all!

 

[ddiggity2001]

I was always of the same schopl as I hear others saying...dont trim em...theyre factories. Ive found there is one really important exception. Underneath those upper sun leaf "factories" there is often a new or young branch being deprived of light. Apoun removing upper fan leafs, you allow light to reach the new shots, which are also "factories"...factories that will develope into healthy buds. I trim fan leaves only once my plants are well established, and there is enough under growth to catch the light that I'm letting through by removing my fan leaves. Removing low growing fan leaves is important as well. The general rule is that if the leaf is not feeding the plant, its feeding off of the plant. That means if its way on the bottom, and not getting any light, then its using energy from the leaves on top. Take those off. You'll know that youre doing the riight thing, because the leave will come away really easily. The plant makes it easy for the leaves and branches that arent feeding it to come away. Ive seen people totally defoliate their fans right as they turn them to flower ( I dont reccomend doing this), and came away with pretty stellar results. I recon that was because every branch on the bottoms which wouyld norlammy be pruned away in an indoor grow, were left in direct light, and able to develope. Alohas. ddiggity

 

[headband]

ahhaaah diggity :stuff-1125699181_i_ the plant doesnt just stop growing at the bottom cus the leaves dont get as much light or what?